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I’d like to be a scrapbooker, surrounding myself with all the neat toys and creating books of memories for myself and my kids. But once started, would I know when I had enough?

I’ve watched the scrapbooking phenomenon with more than a little interest. I have a girlfriend who has a walk-in closet full of stuff. I worked with a woman whose family couldn’t eat in the dining room because the table, chairs, floor were stacked with scrapbooking supplies. And more than once I’ve seen people with hundreds of stamps and literally thousands of kitschy doodads designed to make their scrapbooking pages into masterpieces.

That’s not to say you HAVE to spend a fortune to scrapbook. If you’re creative about where you get your kitsch, you can make memories for not a lot of money. Here are some ideas:

Do you have interesting material you could use from old shirts, PJs or linens that could be used to embellish a page? Suede, leather, satins and silks can all be molded or cut into interesting accents.

Ask friends and family who knit, sew or crochet for their “ends” that you can get creative with.

In the old days, nobody threw away anything with a button on it. The buttons were clipped off and added to a button barrel in case you needed a button for something else. Re-establish this trend and collect buttons from your friends, which you can use as accents or combine in interesting designs around your photos.

Cut pictures from old magazines for collage-type groupings. Trim inspirational words in interesting typefaces for use on your pages.

Check out local garage sales and church bazaars for antique style fabrics, old cushions you can cut apart for the material, and inexpensive “jewelry” to dress up your pages.

Ask local paint stores for old wallpaper books that you can pull apart; those sample pages make perfect background pages and can save you a fortune.

Don’t forget the dollar store. You might be surprised at what you’ll find. And for beginning scrapbookers, it’s a great place to leap in without over-committing financially.

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